Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum

The United States of America has implemented import tariffs on steel and aluminum. This tariff was part of a "trade war" that ended up not only hurting brokerage businesses, but trucking companies as well. With less and less loads being ordered from other countries like Canada or China, it is affecting how much market volume there are for trucks. It has done damage to many companies, especially the trucking companies that do intercontinental runs and firms that do business out of the western part of the country. Canada is a huge exporter of steel into the United States and with the tariffs, this has caused a reduction in shipments that Canadian based trucking companies can do (coloadx.com). This unreasonable tariff has lowered a lot of cargo coming to the western part of the country from overseas, which reduces the number of loads taken to other parts of the country. This causes not enough trucks to be available in places where they need things shipped within the United States.

With less trucks being available throughout the country due to a squeezed market, trucking companies are demanding more and more money because they have a lot of available trucks. This hurts the margins that brokerages need to operate and expand since they are not seeing as much revenue as before. With the influx of available trucks and not many loads, the market has seen a lot of fluctuation and a lot of companies are hurting because of it since it is basically a guessing game of when the freight market will be hot or when it will get cold. free HitCounter